Year in Review

As I look back and read all my blog posts from this past season, I feel like our team had a successful year. Being my first year as  a Superintendent I really don't have anything to compare this year to, but I definitely feel satisfied with the progress we made on and off the golf course.

The amount of unknowns on the property definitely surprised me. I have been used to working for trained Superintendents that have had their respective golf courses infrastructure, records, and all other aspects of golf course management up to date and in working order. This was not the case at Dinosaur Trail as it pretty much took all season just to get the course functional.

I said I would never be one of those crazy Superintendents that spends the night at the golf course, watching the irrigation system, but by mid May I already had a few night under my belt in the pumphouse. There was a few things I never thought I would do as a Superintendent, but your perspective quickly changes when it is your golf course.

Many people in the past few weeks have asked how my first year as a Superintendent was. I can honestly say I have never learned as much in one season as I did this past season. It was definitely a struggle at times and I can remember days when I wondered what I had got myself into, but with the support of an awesome crew we eventually came out on top. I came into this position deciding I needed to change pretty much all aspects of the turf care operation. We completely changed the cultural and fertility programs, but the biggest change was in the turf care team. With the exception of 2 individuals, with one being the mechanic, the turfcare team was completely overhauled. We had our growing pains at the start of the season, but by August we were a well oiled machine. Without this great team we would have never accomplished the amount of projects we completed. I look forward to having many of our team members return next season.

I was lucky to have two guys on the crew this year with turfgrass education. A big thanks goes out to Colin McKenzie and all the work he put into the irrigation system this summer. You could pretty much find him in a hole or changing out heads on a daily basis. Without his contributions and work ethic the irrigation system would still be a mess. I would like to wish him good luck in his new position as an Assistant Superintendent at the Petroleum Club in Edmonton. He definitely has all the tools to be successful in the business, as I like to think, we gave him tonnes of practice and hopefully he learned a thing or two as well.

Andrew Smith came to Dinosaur Trail this season as a first year Assistant Superintendent. It did not take him long to step up and prove himself to the crew and myself. He was invaluable to the golf course this season, as when I was away from the course he seamlessly took over. I was very proud to see him grow over the season as a turfgrass manager that could pretty much deal with any issue on the golf course. As I write this he is in the process of finishing up his Turfgrass Management Degree from Olds College. I look forward to having him back next season where we can continue to build on where we left off this fall.

I am currently in the process of planning for next season as well as taking some time off. The course is under a nice blanket of snow and happy with how it has wintered so far. The cultural and fertility plans are complete as well as the budget, now I am starting to focus on projects and course improvements for next season. My plans are definitely ambitious for next season as we continue to work towards improving Dinosaur Trail.

Finally I would like to thank our GM, Scott Westman, all other Dinosaur Trail staff members, the board of directors, and the membership for their continued support of the Turf Care Team. The support from the community of Drumheller has been second to none and I look forward to continuing this into 2013. Building relationships is important to me, and I believe it is my job to educate everyone at the golf course about turfgrass maintenance. Feel free to call or email me anytime if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a prosperous 2013. I look forward to seeing everyone at the course next season

Waiting Game

I was hoping we would have the golf course all ready for winter, but the snow and cold temperatures that have been with us for the last two weeks have thrown a wrench into our plans.

Header for compressors

Q.C left running for a bit

We completed the irrigation system blowout on the 23rd and 24th of October, with about 5 inches of snow on the ground. For the most part everything went as planned, as we had no issues with sprinkler heads freezing and we could view all heads popping through the snow. Our biggest challenge was maneuvering around the course, especially on the back, due to slippery conditions and large snow drifts. Thank you to Myles for allowing us to use his quad for blowout, as without it we would have never been able to complete the back nine blowout. For blowout we use 4, 185 cfm compressors from a local equipment rental company in series. All compressors are connected together via a header which then connects to the irrigation system with a larger hose. Our front and back nine irrigation systems are completely separate from one another except at the pump house, so this configuration allows us to use smaller compressors to get blowout done. During blowout our goal was to maintain a pressure around 40-45 psi, this was easy attainable with our compressor configuration.

Andrew running through controllers

Starting off with a little slideshow in the Tournament Center

On October 11th we also had the Olds College Turf Management students come tour the golf course. It had snowed the day before so most of the course was covered with a blanket of snow. I really enjoyed the opportunity to answer questions and have conversations about being a young superintendent at a smaller facility, as well as the specific challenges we deal with at Dinosaur Trail. They also took the opportunity to tour the golf course, but most of the interest was to see our unique back nine. I look forward to having future classes visit the course, hopefully on a nicer day when we can actually see the turf!

Andrew and myself with the students

 In the next few days we plan to start clearing greens of snow to start our final winter prep for greens surfaces. We still need to apply our final fungicide application as well as anti desiccant, before we finish with a heavy topdressing. The back nine greens will also have permeable greens covers installed on them along with some ridges getting extra protection of cocoa matting. Our team needs around 4 days to complete these tasks, so hopefully the next 7 to 10 days will give us the window we need to properly prepare the greens for winter. Once these tasks are completed I will be able to stop worrying about putting the course to bed and focus on completing my budget for 2013.

Thanksgiving Update

Our Crew enjoying our Turf Care Thanksgiving Potluck this past Friday

The past month for the Dinosaur Trail Turf Care Team has been a busy one forsure. Numerous wind storms have taken down many aging Poplar trees, highlighting the need to develop a tree management plan this upcoming off season. Most of the trees on the property have exceeded their life expectancy as a "nurse" tree and have became a liability for the golf course. Wind gusts of 80-100 km/h hit the course a few weeks ago, leaving the course a mess. Thanks to our hard working turf care team and a dozen volunteers we re-opened the course two days later, with very little debris present on the course

Trees down around the 4th Green

1/2" hollow tines, 2x2 spacing
6 inches deep

More recently we also completed a deep tine aeration with assistance from Rory Hoyt and his equipment. In just under 10 hours we were able to core, clean up, topdress, and work in sand on 19 greens. We had a perfect day for aeration, as it was warm, sunny, and windy, which help facilitate us in filling the aeration holes with just under 40 tonnes of sand. The greens cleaned up great and have recovered very well in the past week. We applied a Floratine foliar application of nutrients 4 days prior to our aeration to all greens except our putting green to speed up aeration recovery. I am very happy with the results, as there is noticeable difference in recovery between our control green and sprayed greens.

The last few weeks of the golf season will be busy for the Dino Trail Turf Care Team. We are down to a solid crew of 6 and with leaves coming off the trees on the front nine, alot of our time will be spent dealing with them. As well we have the Olds College turfgrass management program coming to spend a day with us this week. Being an Olds College graduate I am looking forward to discussing with the students my experiences as a first year superintendent as well as the challenges and successes we have had a Dinosaur Trail this year.


Greens after topdressing

Blow out of the irrigation system will be done on the 23rd and 24th, until then we continue to deal with failing glue joints, and incorrect repairs done in the past. Andrew has become very efficient in these repairs, as I am pretty sure we can both can do these repairs in our sleep. To date we have completed over 40 piping repairs this season along with replacing over 60 irrigation heads. I am looking forward to blowout and 6 month break from having to fix any irrigation issues.

After blowout we will plan to apply our final fall fungicide application, which also may end up being our first fungicide app of the season, if the disease pressure continues to be low. Other than a little snow mold in the spring we have not seen any disease on our greens. I believe we can contribute this to our hot arid temperatures and the lack of humidity in the air this summer.



Greens 1 week after aeration

Following our fungicide app we will apply an anti- dessicant to the greens, followed by a medium topdressing to protect the crown of the plant of the turf on the greens. Finally the greens on the exposed back nine will be covered with permeable tarps and the ridges prone to drying out with be covered in cocoa matting.

Andrew has recently completed our new washpad and irrigation test station that is fed by the irrigation system. He has done a great job on both accounts, helping our team save time with a more efficient washing system and the ability to ensure an irrigation head works properly before installing them in the field. He has spent the last week rebuilding heads to ensure we have a wide variety of replacement heads in stock for all areas of the golf course. 

Finally I have an interesting picture from our back nine. We have a major issue with bentonite washing on to our 18th fairway. The bentonite "topdresses" the turf and smothers it in a sense. Mark Jull from Turf Canada was out afew weeks ago taking soil samples and I showed him these problem areas. He took some large core samples to play around with any we continued on our way. A few days later I drove by the problem area and took the picture below. I did not think that anything would be able to overcome the 3 to 4 inches of bentonite that has migrated onto the 18th fwy in certain places. With the addition of an aerator to our fleet of equipment next season, I plan to punch these areas continously to see if we can alleviate the issues caused by the bentonite.

Bentonite area on 18th fwy

Good to luck to fellow turfgrass managers in the final stages of the golf season working towards getting their respective golf courses ready for winter. Another season is almost in the books, and personally I am looking forward to some down time to recharge my batteries, reflect on this season, and start planning for 2013.